Yesterday I ate lunch with a Catholic priest, two Lutheran pastors, and some ministers from the Covenant church. The priest was a chatty kind of guy. He says his bishop only lets him do 3 masses on a weekend. Only? He serves four or five parishes. He told us how when they close churches down the people can go into 1) Patrimony, or 2) I forget the term. With the former, the parishioners shut down the church altogether. No mores weddings or funerals, nothing. At that point they can give the property to wherever they want and can go wherever they want. When they want to hold on to their own church a bit, if only for the funerals, then the Church says, "Well, this is where you belong and this where your stuff is going to go. It was an interesting discussion and I wish I remember the terms better.
On his first day in this area he got to be in on a church closing in Laurens, IA. They did inventory all day long, which is how he met the people, then they had a meeting that night to hash it out.
Similar situation with the Lutheran churches in that area (not mine.) 3 churches were sharing a pastor. A fourth needed to join up as their last minister was an SJW and attendance and giving had dropped off. One of the first three decided to bow out. They'll close up shop soon.
Same with school districts. Since the 70s in some places, accelerating into the 2000s. School districts in rural Iowa comprise almost whole counties. The community where we had lunch, Pocahontas, has gone in with some 7 or 8 other towns, but still only has about 900 kids total.
My town, Lytton, went in with a neighboring town in the early 90s, but had to consolidate again 15 years later with another district which had already consolidated as well. 900 kids for the time being.
All of these towns have been losing population for decades. For some it started in the 60s; for others the decline didn't start until the 1980s. But you have to go about 30 minutes to get to a town that has grown. Those that grow are the ones that were already 7,000 or so. The towns that were smaller than 3,000 are all shrinking fast.
It's an interesting challenge. Fewer people, but also the corrosive effects of secularism on the people remaining. We are members of a decent-sized suburban Catholic parish (St. Rose of Lima) and we have to share our pastor with the neighboring congregation at Corpus Christi, about a mile to the west. At this point there’s no pressure to merge the two parishes, but I could see that happening at some point in the future. Corpus Christi sits on some pretty valuable real estate. It will be interesting to see what happens.
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Yesterday I ate lunch with a Catholic priest, two Lutheran pastors, and some ministers from the Covenant church. The priest was a chatty kind of guy. He says his bishop only lets him do 3 masses on a weekend. Only? He serves four or five parishes. He told us how when they close churches down the people can go into 1) Patrimony, or 2) I forget the term. With the former, the parishioners shut down the church altogether. No mores weddings or funerals, nothing. At that point they can give the property to wherever they want and can go wherever they want. When they want to hold on to their own church a bit, if only for the funerals, then the Church says, "Well, this is where you belong and this where your stuff is going to go. It was an interesting discussion and I wish I remember the terms better.
On his first day in this area he got to be in on a church closing in Laurens, IA. They did inventory all day long, which is how he met the people, then they had a meeting that night to hash it out.
Similar situation with the Lutheran churches in that area (not mine.) 3 churches were sharing a pastor. A fourth needed to join up as their last minister was an SJW and attendance and giving had dropped off. One of the first three decided to bow out. They'll close up shop soon.
Same with school districts. Since the 70s in some places, accelerating into the 2000s. School districts in rural Iowa comprise almost whole counties. The community where we had lunch, Pocahontas, has gone in with some 7 or 8 other towns, but still only has about 900 kids total.
My town, Lytton, went in with a neighboring town in the early 90s, but had to consolidate again 15 years later with another district which had already consolidated as well. 900 kids for the time being.
All of these towns have been losing population for decades. For some it started in the 60s; for others the decline didn't start until the 1980s. But you have to go about 30 minutes to get to a town that has grown. Those that grow are the ones that were already 7,000 or so. The towns that were smaller than 3,000 are all shrinking fast.
It's an interesting challenge. Fewer people, but also the corrosive effects of secularism on the people remaining. We are members of a decent-sized suburban Catholic parish (St. Rose of Lima) and we have to share our pastor with the neighboring congregation at Corpus Christi, about a mile to the west. At this point there’s no pressure to merge the two parishes, but I could see that happening at some point in the future. Corpus Christi sits on some pretty valuable real estate. It will be interesting to see what happens.
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